If you judge by the title of this story alone, you might think that the European Commission (EU) is punishing Apple and EMI for getting ready to offer music sans DRM's (Digital Right Management). The EU's complaint is much simpler than that. Apparently, Apple would only be applying these costs in some parts of the iTunes store. So, a song can cost less in one European country than another. This violates a very important article of the EU, and so Apple may incur a 10% fine if they do not change things soon.

For those of you curious about the shenanigans going on between EMI and Apple: The two companies have proudly announced a strategic partnership, and EMI will be sending Apple all their music without DRMs, which is a bold move. It is risky from a business standpoint, but very welcomed from a customer standpoint. Proof that EMI will be pioneering DRM free music can be found here in their press release.

im happy for the people who do buy their mp3s but i wont be caught dead buying music in mp3 format. i love music so i like paying for the CD and the case art.

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Just picking nits here, but iTunes doesn't sell mp3's. They sell m4a (.aac). Far superior to mp3. But aside from that, I agree with you to a point. I much prefer CDs, but the fact of the matter is, some CDs just aren't worth buying, because they only have 1 or 2 good songs on them.

Just picking nits here, but iTunes doesn't sell mp3's. They sell m4a (.aac). Far superior to mp3. But aside from that, I agree with you to a point. I much prefer CDs, but the fact of the matter is, some CDs just aren't worth buying, because they only have 1 or 2 good songs on them.

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oh yea definately. some CDs arent worth buying so i dont buy them at all. most of the music i listen to is on smaller labels anyway so typically they allow downloading of single songs. and thanks for the mp3/m4a info. shows how much ive used itunes!